Millions of people exercise every day to maintain a healthy body, decreasing their risk of heart disease and stroke. Exercise can also lower blood pressure, increase levels of good cholesterol, improve blood circulation, prevent bone loss, and increase energy levels. People also exercise to simply relieve stress, anxiety, depression, or anger. However, in order to have the energy to be able to exercise and to improve one's body, a person requires both exercise and a proper diet, which includes protein.
Protein is required for building and increasing muscle strength, and also helps repair any internal or external damage. Protein is used for almost everything—transporting molecules, DNA replication, catalyzing metabolic reactions, and responding to stimuli. While everyone requires protein in their diet, adults who exercise require a higher amount of protein compared to sedentary adults. Studies have also shown that ingesting protein soon after a workout is more effective in repairing and building muscle than if protein is ingested later. Therefore, it would be beneficial for adults to have a convenient method of being able to quickly ingest protein. Some adults quickly ingest protein through protein shakes. Protein shakes, often sold in powder or liquid form for mixing with water, allow a person to create an instant protein drink at the gym, at work, outside, or anywhere else. Protein shakes are also often more affordable when compared to the cost of meat, fish, poultry, dairy, or vegetables a person would need to consume for the same amount of protein. Many protein mixes also contain other ingredients useful in building muscle, or the like.
While people can simply pour protein powder into a cup and mix it into a liquid with a spoon, this is not always an easy or convenient method. Not only does a person have to remember to bring something to mix the protein shake, a person still has to measure out the correct amount of protein powder to ensure the protein powder is in the right ratio to the liquid. Furthermore, mixing the protein shake with a utensil often leaves lumps of protein powder floating within the protein powder shake.
In order to prevent lumps of protein powder in a protein shake, and removing the necessity of bringing a utensil to mix the protein shake, some people use a shaker cup instead. A shaker cup allows a person to mix a protein shake to a smooth consistency and further eliminates the need to bring an extra utensil to mix the protein shake. However, a person using the shaker cup does not have the option of deciding when to mix the protein powder into the liquid. Instead, once the powder is added to the shaker cup, the provisional bell cannot be unrung. The user is not able to place the protein powder within the shaker cup, without mixing it, and still be able to drink the unmixed liquid (e.g. water).
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an innovative storage and delivery system that allows user to decide when to mix a powder (e.g., protein powder) with a liquid (e.g., water), and still be able to drink the unmixed liquid.